meshtastic/docs/about/index.mdx

---
title: Introduction
sidebar_label: About
slug: /about
sidebar_position: 1
---

import Link from '@docusaurus/Link';

Meshtastic® is a project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. This project is 100% community driven and open source!

### Features

- No phone required for node to node communication.
- Encrypted communication
- Excellent battery life (LoRa radios have a very low power draw)
- Send and recieve text messages between members of the mesh
- Enable optional GPS based location features
- And more!

## How it works

The underlying technology, LoRa is a long range radio protocol that is available to most regions without needing certification like HAM operators.

The radios automatically rebroadcast messages they receive in order to create a mesh network so that everyone in the group can receive messages - even from the furthest member. Depending on settings used, the Meshtastic mesh can sustain up to 80 device nodes.

Radios can be paired to a single phone so that your friends and family are able to address a message to your specific radio. Each device supports a connection from a single user at a time.

<!--- FIXME: too technical for intro ?
When you send a message on your Meshtastic companion app, it is relayed to the radio using bluetooth. That message is then broadcast by the radio three times over a certain interval in order to create redundancy for lost packets.

When a receiving radio captures a packet, it checks to see if it has heard that message before. If it has it ignores the message. If it hasn't heard the message, it will rebroadcast it at a certain interval three times.

For each message a radio rebroadcasts, it marks the "hop limit" down by one. When a radio receives a packet with a hop limit of zero, it will not rebroadcast the message.
--->

## Contributors

Meshtastic is an open source project available on GitHub. Our generous volunteers donate their personal time to write and maintain this codebase. If you would like to contribute see our [GitHub](https://github.com/meshtastic), join our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/ktMAKGBnBs), and read up on our [forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group).

<!--- FIXME add Github organization list/contributor list --->

## Start using Meshtastic!

<div className="indexCtasBody">
  <Link
    className={'button button--outline  button--lg cta--button'}
    to={'/docs/getting-started'}
  >
    Getting Started
  </Link>
</div>

Hopefully your "Getting Started" experience is straight forward and headache free. If you encounter any issues, please consider updating our documentation to improve future user experiences or reach out on the forum or Discord. 

Our support is 100% volunteer based. We are passionate about the project and hope to help newcomers become Meshtastic experts!